NEAR TRUTHS: REP RAP

Agency competition is plenty robust and becoming more so, about which more in a moment. But we should start by saying that both WME and Wasserman Music have enjoyed outstanding years as the post-pandemic bounce has revitalized the live biz.

Three major players—hip-hop division co-heads Kevin Shivers and James Rubin and partner Cristina Baxter—recently exited WME to join Wasserman. The deal was orchestrated by Team Wass President of Music Lee Anderson and brokered by Granderson Des Rochers’ Damien Granderson. It’s widely expected that the agents’ rosters will accompany them to their new home.

The deal is a clear sign that L.A. Olympics ruler Casey Wasserman and his team are striking a more aggressive posture to growing the company’s business after two great post-COVID years that saw all boats rise.

It’s a rousing capper to a banner year for Wasserman Music, which saw client Chappell Roan become a bona fide sensation. Roan’s crowd-rocking festival appearances were among the year’s most talked-about sets, and the star’s breakthrough 2024 was solemnized with Grammy noms for Album, Record and Song of the Year as well as Best New Artist. Meanwhile, Drake scored the biggest take yet for a hip-hop tour with $320m. Among agency acts who leveled up: Americana stars Noah Kahan and Tyler Childers and EDM MVPs Fred Again.. and John Summit. Wass led all agencies in Coachella bookings and claimed the biggest tally of worldwide festival bookings.

The move by Shivers (Tyler, the Creator, Lil Baby), Rubin (Travis Scott, Don Toliver) and Baxter (Andre 3000, Kygo) comes amid widely acknowledged bad blood between the rival agencies. This rancor was surely exacerbated by Billie Eilish’s decision to jump from Wass to WME last year. Eilish’s inner circle, incidentally, now includes Don Passman as well as Paul Wachter of Main Street Advisors, who numbers heavy hitters like LeBron James, Bono, Jimmy Iovine, Drake, Dr. Dre, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Boston Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner among his clients.

Billie, who is jointly represented by her new agency’s music heads, Lucy Dickins and Kirk Sommer, wasn’t the only high-profile artist to move to WME recently; FINNEAS, Linkin Park, Benson Boone, Becky G, Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris, Dasha and Empire of the Sun are among the acts to make the move. In 2023 WME Co-Chair Richard Weitz and Dickins brought in Josh Javor from X-Ray Touring as partner and co-head of the company’s London music department, adding a roster that includes Coldplay, Eminem, Queens of the Stone Age and Phoebe Bridgers.

WME, too, enjoyed an exceptional 2024. Its successes included $1b+ in tour grosses for ex-U.S. client Coldplay, Adele’s blockbuster Munich stand (booked by Dickins) and Vegas residency (overseen by Sommer) and boffo biz for the likes of Scott, Eilish, Zach Bryan ($4m nightly), Olivia Rodrigo and (ex-U.S.) Dua Lipa, to name but a few. The latter two both sold more than 1m tix. The agency booked 40k+ shows and its clients earned 96 Grammy noms.

Meanwhile, buzzers are buzzing about another possible high-profile agency defection in the near future.

One thing is for certain: As the live sector gets bigger, agents who have relationships with the biggest acts are themselves becoming rock stars. If you win any awards, be sure to thank yours in your speech.